The Kilns
At the occasion of coming to Oxford again, I booked a tour in C. S. Lewis’s house The Kilns in Headington.
Here are some pictures from the outside and the inside.
Outside, nearby lake, and the garden. The Kilns got its name after ceramic ovens called "kilns" that used to be part of the grounds long before Lewis moved in as the place was originally a farmstead with a couple of adjacent workhouses, such as the ceramics workhouse.
The inside of the house does not contain original furniture that Lewis owned, but was recreated to the best of the C. S. Lewis Foundation’s people’s abilities using antique furniture as similar to those Lewis owned, as evidenced by historical photos of him inside the house. Some rooms, however, include even modern furniture since the house is rented out to researchers and artists.
The common room.
Warnie’s (Lewis’s brother) study room.
Library. This room was originally a garage during Lewis’s lifetime. It was expanded and turned into a library by the Foundation. Interestingly, though, it contains one of the few original items owned by the former inhabitants of the house — Miss Moore’s piano. Mrs Moore and her daughter were family of Lewis’s close pre-WWI friend Edward Moore, to whom Lewis promised to take care of them in case he would die. So after Edward was killed in the war, Lewis took his mother and sister to live with him. At first, they lived at other houses in Oxford before moving to The Kilns.
Another curiosity in the room is the original sign of The Eagle and Child pub, where the Inklings used to meet for discussing their writing.
Upstairs are several bedrooms. First, of course, Lewis’s bedroom. Next to it, between his bedroom and the hallway is Lewis’s study — formerly the bedroom of Mrs Moore. A fun fact is that Lewis reportedly lost the key to his own bedroom and didn’t bother to get a new one made for years (until Joy Davidman moved in), so to get from his bedroom to his study, he had to use the fire escape, climb down from the outside of the house, and walk through the whole house. Apparently, he just didn’t bother with the house upkeep and maintenance at all.
On the other side of the hallway, there is a bedroom which used to house not only Miss Moore, but during WWII Lewis offered it to shelter children escaping from London when the capital was in danger of being bombed.
The last two publicly open rooms of the house are the kitchen and the dining room, which also served as Joy Davidman’s room later on. The kitchen still houses a functioning original unique stove and in the dining room you can find Lewis’s typewriter.
Just a 10-minute walk from The Kilns there is Holy Trinity Church and cemetery, where Lewis and his brother are buried in a common grave. And at the edge of Headington, about another 40-minute walk from there, at the Oxford Crematorium was cremated Lewis’s wife Joy Davidman, as we are reminded by the memorial plaque.
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